1984 t Portrait of the4eek
Librani
'T'en people were killed, 33 injured, by an 1 explosion of methane gas at a water sta- tion near Lancaster. The London stock market saw its biggest fall for ten years, amid fears that more US banks were in trouble. Mr Tiny Rowland again threatened to close the Observer, this time because of a pay dispute with printworkers. British Rail obtained only a promise of talks on produc- tivity when determining the annual pay rise with the rail unions. The Government in- troduced a bill to give MPs the best index- linked pension scheme in the public sector. The rules about MPs' tax-free death benefit of £16,606 were changed to enable them to leave it to mistresses. Others in the public sector such as judges and top civil servants were told their pay rises would be cut back to three per cent this year, except for nurses, who are expected to get the seven per cent recommended by their review body. Foreign Office staff representatives criticised bitterly a Government plan to cut the number of diplomats. A 48-hour strike by seamen disrupted ferry services. In the 12-week-old coal dispute, Nottinghamshire miners won a High Court injunction ban- ning their union from ordering them to strike. Mr Arthur Scargill, president of the union, said any union official who urged members to cross picket lines could face disciplinary action. New and secret negotia- tions on the future of the industry were ar- ranged. Some of the worst clashes between pickets and police occurred outside the Orgreave coking Plant in South Yorkshire, where miners under the personal direction of Mr Scargill failed to stop supplies of coke leaving for a steel plant. Mr Scargill himself was arrested and charged with obstruction, before being released on bail. Dr David Owen called for the law on secon- dary picketing to be enforced.
Iran and Iraq continued to attack neutral shipping in the Gulf. As a result in- surance premiums soared, and Japanese shipowners said they would stop sending Japanese-crewed tankers to ports on the northern Gulf coast. America increased its supply of arms to Saudi Arabia. Iran ap- peared ready to launch an enormous land offensive, to try to reach Baghdad. Four more Britons were detained in Libya. It was revealed that several dozen Frenchmen have been held in the USSR against their will ever since 1945: the French have so far ob- tained the release of 17, Mr Peter Hain, the long-standing anti-apartheid campaigner, said the South African prime minister, Mr P. W. Botha, should expect a 'hot recep- tion' when he visited London: 'Put it this way — if I were him, I would be very con- cerned about my safety,' Talks began bet- ween Greece and Albania to end the state of war which has in theory existed between those two countries since 1941. In West Ger m,anyw talks- to '813. the dispute in the engineering industry which has made more than 250,000 workers idle, and shut most car assembly plants, broke down. An Israeli commission of enquiry reported that two Palestinian terrorists captured alive by the Israeli army had been bludgeoned to death. Brigitte Bardot expressed her annoyance that an ivory bracelet she had sent to Canada, to be auctioned by an animal welfare group to help save baby seals, had been impounded by Canadian customs of- ficials on the grounds that the elephant is an endangered species.
In South Africa, a judge cleared a white householder who shot dead a black thief in the act of stealing about 70 pence in milk money, and declared: 'He deserved a medal for what he did.' In County Durham, a police inspector retired from the force after 28 years' service because he had referred to coloured people as `nignogs' at the Police Federation conference in Scarborough. Mrs Kinnock announced that Mr Kinnock had had a vasectomy. Some of his shadow cabinet colleagues attacked him for his gim- micky style of campaigning. Romania ir- ritated Moscow by refusing to boycott the Olympic Games. John Francome surpassed Stan Mellor's record total of 1,034 National Hunt winners. Zola Budd ran the fastest 1,500 metres by a woman in the world this year. Peregrine falcons started to breed in Gloucestershire after a gap of 30 years. Eric Morecambe died of a heart attack, Reggie Bosanquet of cancer. After a wet, cold spring bank holiday, the usual calls were
made to change the date. AJSG
'I expect Tiny Rowland has sent them a let- ter congratulating them.'
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